Our Visiting Scholars

Visiting Scholars at Upaya are individuals with exceptional academic achievement and promise, who bring together contemplative practice, rigorous academic study, and social engagement. We are pleased that Dr. Rushton was the first Scholar in Residence at Upaya and many have followed. Our interdisciplinary program will host scholars and advanced practitioners from academia, medicine, law, and the media, as well as those in the humanities, the sciences, the arts, and the service professions.

Visiting scholars come to Upaya to conduct independent research on issues related to Upaya's vision of enhancing the relationship between traditional Buddhism and compassionate engagement with our world. Upaya supports visiting scholars by providing them with lodging, meals, quiet space for research and reflection, and access to Upaya's regular meditation schedule and array of programs. Visiting scholars are usually in residence for 2-8 weeks. During that time they make presentations on their research and engage in dialogue with the local practice community and visiting teachers.

Upaya fosters a sincere and dedicated practice community of engaged Zen practitioners from all over the globe. By hosting trainings and retreats that serve people working in a wide array of professions, Upaya's mission is to encourage principled social and individual transformation to relieve systemic suffering. Upaya offers engaged Buddhist training and practice in the areas of death and dying, prison work, peacemaking, poverty and homelessness, women's studies, chaplaincy, the environment, and the arts.

Upaya Zen Center and Institute is located on a quiet campus dotted with beautiful adobe buildings nestled in the Santa Fe River valley and tucked up against the breathtaking Sangre de Christo mountain range. Surrounded by vast open land and integrated into the ancient cultures of this region, Upaya is one of the most beautiful and well-known Zen centers in the United States. A diverse residential community of practitioners supports the Center. Facilities at Upaya include an exquisite temple, offices for staff and visitors, a dining room, a kitchen, a lounge, and a shared, comfortably appointed home for visiting scholars.

One may not apply to be a Visiting Scholar at Upaya. Visiting Scholars are given this honor by special invitation.

David Hinton's writing grows out of ancient Chinese thought, with a special emphasis on Taoism and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism as ways into deep-ecological thinking. His many translations of classical Chinese poetry and philosophy have earned wide acclaim for creating compelling contemporary texts that convey the literary texture and philosophical density of the originals. Hinton has won many natio...

Dolpo Tulku, also called Tulku Sherab Zangpo, was born into a Lama family in Dho Tarap, Dolpo, in 1982. He became a monk at Kanying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Nepal, at the age of 9 in 1991 and was recognized by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche to be the reincarnation of the third Dolpo Nyingchung Drubthob shortly thereafter. He was then sent to Namdroling Monastery, India, to receive his monastic educa...

Dr. Cynda Hylton Rushton is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics and Professor of Nursing and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics and School of Nursing. She is the Co-Chair of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Ethics Committee and Consultation Service.

San Francisco writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of seventeen books about geography, community, art, politics, hope, and feminism and the recipient of many awards, including the Lannan Literary Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award (for River of Shadows; two other books of hers also were nominated for the prize in other years).